International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)

ISSN: 2249 8958, Volume-3, Issue-2, December 2013

A Review of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) In

Malaysian Environment
Rosnani Affandi, Mohd Ruddin Ab Ghani, Chin Kim Gan, Jano, Zanariah
Abstract Malaysia has an abundance of solar energy. While
the magnitude for average daily solar irradiations in Malaysia is
around 4.215.56 kWhm2, the sunshine duration is more than
2,200 hours per year. However, the focus on solar energy in
Malaysia is mainly on the Photovoltaic (PV) panel to generate
electricity. There is still lack of thorough investigation in
implementing the solar thermal, such as the Concentrating Solar
Power (CSP) in Malaysian environment. This paper reviews the
CSP technology and the potential of developing CSP plant in the
Malaysian environment by taking into account the Direct Normal
Irradiance (DNI) and a few geographical aspects.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is one of green

technologies or Renewable energy technologies that is able to
be the main source of electricity in the future. The technology
is clean, reliable and environmental friendly. Malaysia should
move a step forward to look into this technology and then
consider CSP as one of the deemed capable technologies for
generating electricity rather than using solar PV, Biomass,
Mini Hydro and Biogas.

Index Terms Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), Direct

Normal Irradiance (DNI), Photovoltaic (PV).

Many countries all over the world including Malaysia, are

now focusing more on green technology and renewable
energy. According to the 2011 projection by International
Energy Agency, renewable energy like solar power generators
may produce most of the worlds electricity within 50 years,
dramatically reducing the emission of greenhouse gases that
harm the environment. Of all sources of renewable energy,
solar energy is by far the most abundant [2].
Under the Energy Entry Point Programme [3], Malaysia
targets to build solar power capacity up to 1.25 GW by 2020.
In comparison, German had the solar power capacities of
20,000 MW or 20 GW in mid 2012 which cannot be
challenged by other countries until now.
Malaysia has an abundance of sunshine and solar radiation.
On average, Malaysia receives about 6 hours of sunshine
every day. Malaysia has an annual average of daily solar
irradiations of 4.215.56 kWhm2, and the sunshine duration
is more than 2,200 hours per year [4]. Hence, Malaysia has a
rich supply of sunlight than German and should be
aggressively tapping solar power.
It is estimated that the earth receives approximately
1000W/m2 amount of solar irradiation in a day [5] and by
harnessing the solar energy from eight different solar power
plant sites throughout the world, the energy generated from
these plants has the capability to supply more than enough
electricity to satisfy the present global energy utilization [6].
These sites are located in the deserts in Southwest Asia,
China, Australia, Southern South America, United States and
Mexico.
There are two ways to extract electricity from solar
radiation; Photovoltaic and CSP. The former refers to the
direct conversion of sunlight to electricity whereas the latter
the use of heat to generate electricity. In contrast to
photovoltaic, CSP technologies do not produce electricity
directly through solar radiation, but use concentrated solar
energy to indirectly generate heat and power.
CSP is a promising technology for power as no fossil fuel is
used in this technology. Therefore, no greenhouse gases are
emitted [7]. Important features of most solar thermal
technologies are their capacity for bulk power generation and
their viability in a wide range of plant sizes from a few
kilowatts to several hundreds of megawatts [8].

I. INTRODUCTION
Since the beginning of the twenty first century, world has
been confronted with global climate change and high oil
prices. Across the world, protests and demonstrations have
erupted against governments for the surge in fuel pump
prices, which is also sparking general inflation affecting the
price of food, electricity and other commodities.
Oil provides 40 to 43 percent of all energy used by the
world. Oil and coal each accounts for 40 percent of global
warming emission from fossil fuels worldwide. According to
the World Bank in 2008, Malaysia was a high energy user.
Each Malaysian used 2,693kg of oil. In comparison, each
Indonesian used only 870kg, Filipino 455kg and Chinese,
1,598kg and in terms of electricity use, each Malaysian used
an average of 3,667kWh (kilowatt hours) in 2008 [1].
By looking at the scenario, Malaysian government has
started a few initiatives to tackle the problem. In April 2009,
the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water was
established in a cabinet reshuffle to replace the Ministry of
Energy, Water and Communication. Then, the National Green
Technology Policy was launched by the Prime Minister of
Malaysia in 24 July 2009 with the objectives to reduce the
energy usage rate and at the same time increase economic
growth, facilitate the growth of the green technology industry
and enhance its contribution to the national economy and as
well as to increase national capability and capacity for
innovation in green technology development.

Manuscript received December, 2013.

Rosnani Affandi, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal
Malaysia Melaka.
Mohd Ruddin Ab Ghani, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti
Teknikal Malaysia Melaka.
Chin Kim Gan, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknikal
Malaysia Melaka.
Jano,Zanariah, Centre for Languages and Human Development,
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka.

II. SOLAR ENERGY

378

A Review of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) In Malaysian Environment

III. CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER (CSP)
TECHNOLOGY
CSP is also known as concentrating solar thermal power,
representing a powerful, clean, endless, and reliable source of
energy. Concentrating solar power plants produce no Carbon
Dioxide (CO2), thus reducing carbon emissions from
electricity generation by approximately 272.2 kg per
megawatt-hour [9].
Four types of solar concentrators are commonly used;
parabolic trough, parabolic dishes, central receivers and
Fresnel lenses. Linear concentrator systems collect the sun's
energy using long rectangular, curved (U-shaped) mirrors.
The mirrors are tilted toward the sun, focusing sunlight on
tubes (or receivers) that run the length of the mirrors.
There are two major types of linear concentrator systems;
parabolic trough systems and linear Fresnel reflector systems.
A. Parabolic Trough Concentrator

sun about two axes [8]. The Fresnel reflector system is

shown in Fig. 2.
C. Central Receiver Systems

Fig 3. Central receiver systems [10]

A central receiver system consists of a large field of

independently movable flat mirrors (heliostats) and a
receiver located at the top of a tower. Each heliostat moves
about two axes throughout the day to keep the suns image
reflected onto the receiver at the top of the tower. The
receiver, typically a vertical bundle of tubes is heated by the
reflected insolation, thereby heating the heat transfer fluid
passing through the tubes. The central receiver system is
shown is Fig. 3.
D. Parabolic Dish

Fig 1. Parabolic trough systems [10]

A parabolic trough concentrates incoming solar radiation

onto a line running the length of the trough. A tube (receiver)
carrying heat transfer fluid is placed along this line, absorbing
concentrated solar radiation and heating the fluid inside. The
trough must be tracked about one axis, because the surface
area of the receiver tube is small compared to the trough
capture area and temperature up to 400oC can be reached
without major heat loss. The parabolic trough concentrator is
shown in Fig. 1.
B. Fresnel reflector systems

Fig 4. Parabolic trough systems [10]

Parabolic dish concentrators are made from reflecting

mirrors. They have a stirling engine that is situated at the focal
point of the dish reflector. The solar radiation is concentrated
onto a receiver at the focal point and the heat is absorbed and
then the gas is heated up to generate electricity. The parabolic
dish is shown in Fig. 4.
IV. COMPARISON OF CSP TECHNOLOGY

Fig 2. Fresnel reflector systems [10]

A Fresnel lens concentrator uses refraction rather than

reflection to concentrate the solar energy incident on the lens
surface to a point. Molded out of inexpensive plastic, these
lenses are used in photovoltaic concentrators. They are not
used to increase the temperature but to enable the use of
smaller, higher efficiency photovoltaic cells. With regards to
parabolic dishes, point focus Fresnel lenses have to track the

All of the CSP technologies can generate clean energy with

no fuel cost. The only drawback that concentrating solar
power plants have on the environment is land use. To be able
to generate high electrical energy, more land is needed for the
plant. Although the amount of land a CSP plant occupies is
larger than that of a fossil fuel plant, both types of plants use
about the same amount of land as fossil fuel plants utilize
additional land for mining and exploration as well as road
building to reach the mine [11].
Each of CSP technology has its own value proposition and
different deployment optima. Table 1 shows the different CSP
technologies. The parabolic dish has the highest efficiency,

379

International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)

ISSN: 2249 8958, Volume-3, Issue-2, December 2013
18-25% but its hybrid operation is still in the R&D phase.
Solar tower efficiency is the second highest which is around
14-17% and has the highest operating temperature of High
Temperature Fluid (HTF) 1000oc. The efficiency and the
operating temperature HTF of Linear Fresnel is the lowest but
the cost for linear Fresnel is cheaper than the others CSP
systems. Even though Parabolic Trough efficiency is 10-15%,
it has the lowest material demand; good land-use factor,
modularity, thermal storage and others. Which make
parabolic trough the most popular CSP option. [7]. However,
among the CSP technologies, parabolic trough is the most
mature. Parabolic trough has a total capacity of 354 MW and
become the largest operating solar plant in the world [12].
Table 1. Different CSP Technologies [7, 13]
Technology

Temperature

Hybrid
operation

Cost
($/Kw)

Efficiency

Parabolic
Trough
Solar Tower
Parabolic
Dish

400oC

Possible

4,156

10-15%

1000oC
750oC

4,500
6,000

14-17%
18-25%

Linear
Fresnel

270oC

Possible
Still
in
R&D
phase
Possible

2,200

9-15%

V. CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER AND ITS ISSUE

IN MALAYSIA ENVIRONMENT
CSP technology requires Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI)
of at least 1900-2000 kWh/m2/year in order to be
economically feasible. Basically, locations that have been
primarily targeted as suitable for CSP solutions are those with
high sun exposure and low cloud coverage, such as southern
states of the United States, Mexico, Mediterranean sea region,
Middle East, South Africa, parts of China, Pakistan, India,
Australia and parts of South America [8].
Fig. 6 shows the geographical ranges for CSP Plant.
Malaysia and other countries in tropical region are not in the
high insolation zone or within the areas with excellent
resource of solar radiation. The DNI for Malaysia is below
than 1900 kWh/m2/y. In most tropical regions, clouds reduce
the annual production of CSP Plants to such an extent that
they probably will never become viable [16]. Because of this
problem, it is difficult for the countries at the tropical region
including Malaysia to develop their own CSP plant.

Changes in global renewable energy markets, investments,

industries and policies have been so rapid in recent years. The
cost for producing electricity from renewable resources is
traditionally higher than producing electricity from coal or
natural gas. However, as renewable technologies attain
commercial viability and enter the mainstream market, their
price per kilowatt hour is usually decreasing.

Fig 5. Renewable Energy Cost Trends.

Source: NREL Energy Analysis Office
(https://tdksc.ksc.nasa.gov/servlet/dm.web.Fetch/TEERMShahRenewableE
nergyOverview.pdf?gid=102614)

PV, the renewable technology, has historically shown a

large proportion of cost reductions. Cost reductions in solar
PV in particular mean high growth rates in manufacturing.
Cost reductions in wind turbines, Geothermal, CSP and
biomass technologies also contribute to the growth. The
dramatic reductions in PV costs can become a real challenge
for the growing market of CSP. However, in comparison to
PV, CSP technologies are economically competitive. To
some extent, market size can be compared with PV
technologies [14]. The Renewable energy cost trend is shown
in Fig. 5. In general, in CSP, mirrors or concentrator do not
require much maintenance, any greenhouse gas emissions and
production of mirrors. In short, in comparison to PV cells,
CSP technologies have less energy, are intensive and more
environmental friendly [15].

Fig 6. Geographical Ranges for CSP Plant

Source: CSP Global Market Initiative.
Key: Dark orange = excellent resource; pale yellow = adequate resource;
green = insufficient resource.

Due to climate condition, it is commonly believed that the

CSP systems cannot be used in the tropics with relatively high
diffused fraction of global radiation. However, there is no
systematic study on this issue [17]. From Fig. 6, Malaysia and
other countries in the tropical region still have adequate solar
resources to develop CSP plant and most world regions
except Canada, Japan, Russia and South Korea have
significant potential areas for CSP [18]. Hence, Malaysia still
has the potential to develop its own CSP Plant.
Solar energy is available over the entire globe and only the
size of the collector field needs to be increased [19], or else
the new design of CSP technology should be produced to
provide the same amount of heat or electricity as in the region
area with excellent resource of solar energy.
Among available technologies for energy production from
solar sources, CSP could give a significant contribution to
develop a more sustainable energy system [20] and many
calculations have shown that CSP is more cost effective than
PV not only in sunbelt [21]. But in Malaysia, power
generation from solar energy is monopolized by PV solar and
it is proven when Malaysia FIT scheme is limited for only
four sources of renewable energy namely solar PV, Biomass,
Mini Hydro and Biogas.

380

A Review of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) In Malaysian Environment

REFERENCES

VI. GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT OF CSP PLANT

[1]

[2]

[3]
[4]

[5]
[6]
Fig 7. CSP project by country
Source: National laboratory of U.S Department of Energy

[7]

In general, most of the CSP potential studies were mainly

focused on application in dry arid areas of mid-latitude zones
[15]. Fig. 7 shows that most CSP plants are located in area
with excellent solar resources with DNI higher than 1900
kWh/m2/year. German, a country that is located in area with
DNI 902 kWh/m2/year, has much lower DNI than Malaysia.
However in December 2008, German has launched their CSP
plant at Jlich, Rhineland. They are using Tower system with
capacity of 1.5MW.
Meanwhile, Thailand a tropical country with Direct Normal
Irradiance in ranges of 13501400 kWh/m2/year becomes the
first country in Southeast Asian that owns CSP plant. On
January 25, 2012, Thailands first Concentrating Solar power
Plant called TSE1 supplied 5 MW of electrical power to
Thailands public power network for the first time. Therefore,
this scenario proves that CSP plant can work even at regions
with DNI lower than 1900 kWh/m2/year.

[8]

[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]

[13]

[14]

[15]

VII. CONCLUSION
Malaysia is located in the tropical regions with its own
characteristics, such as wind speed, rapid change of clouds,
rain, thunder storm and high humidity level. All of these
climate conditions will affect the performance of the CSP
system. Therefore, an innovative development and research
of CSP should be carried out in Malaysian environment with
detail considerations both on the technical and economic
aspects. The research will give big impact not only for
Malaysia but for other countries which aim to understand and
explore CSP technology and the performance in tropical
environment. Moreover, Thailand as a nearest neighboring
country with Malaysia started their CSP Plant with the
capacity of 5MW in 2012 and will increase the capacity to
135MW in the next five years. Malaysia should seriously
consider looking into CSP technologies as one of the
promising renewable energies for its future by looking at the
CSP progress in Thailand.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the funding
support provided by the Ministry of Education Malaysia
under
the
research
grant
No:
FRGS/2/2013/TK02/FKE/01/F00167.

[16]
[17]

[18]

[19]

[20]

[21]

Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water,

http://www.saveenergy.gov.my/conserve-energy-and-reduce-costs
(Accessed 25 September 2012).
U.S
Department
of
Energy
of
Sciences,
http://web.anl.gov/solar/primer/primer1.html
(Accessed
25
September 2012).
http://etp.pemandu.gov.my/upload/etp_handbook_chapter_6_oil_ga
s_and_energy.pdf (Accessed 26 September 2012).
Muzathik, A. M., Wan Nik, W. B., Samo, K. B. & Ibrahim, M. Z,
Hourly Global Solar radiation Estimates on The Horizontal Plane,
Journal of Physical Science, Vol.21(2),51-66,2010.
R. Winston, J.C. Minano and P. Benitez, Nonimaging Optics,
Elsevier Academic Press, pp. 1217, (2005).
Q. Liu, G. Yu, and J.J. Liu, Solar Radiation as Large-Scale Resource
for Energy, Short World Energy & Environment, 20(3): 319-329,
2009.
Nafisa Noor and Sadid Muneer, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)
and Its Prospect in Bangladesh, 2009.
Pawel Szczygiellski & Leonard Wagner (Mac 2009), Research Report
CSP : Concentrated Solar Power Large Scale Alternatives to
Traditional Solar PV, Mora Associates, Internal research
http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/faq.htm
(Accessed
27
September 2012).
http://www.eere.energy.gov/basics/renewable_energy/linear_concent
rator.html (Accessed 27 September 2012).
Rosli A.Bakar, Development Assesment of Solar Concentrating
Power System For Green Generation, 2010.
N. and J. W. Kulichenko, Concentrating Solar Power in Developing
Countries Regulatory and Financial Incentives for Scaling Up.
Washington, DC: The World Bank, 2012, pp. 1153.
Laura Esmeralda, Garcia Moreno, Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)
in DESERTEC-Analysis of Technologies to Secure and Affordable
Energy Supply, IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Data
Acquisitionand Advanced Computing Systems: technology and
Applications, 2011.
REN21, Renewables Global Status Report: 2009 Update,
Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21 st Century (REN21),
2009:
Available
at
http://www.ren21.net/pdf/RE_GSR_2009_Update.pdf (access on the
02/02/2010).
R. Winston, J.C. Minano and P. Benitez, Nonimaging Optics,
Elsevier Academic Press, pp. 1217, (2005).
Van Voorthuysen, The promising Perspective of Concentrating Solar
Power (CSP), 2005.
S. Janjai, J.Laksanaboonsong, T.Seesaard, Potential application Of
Concentrating Solar Power Systems For The Generation Of
Electricity In Thailand, Applied Energy 88 (2011) 4960-4967.
Franz Trieb, Christoph Schillings, marlene OSulivan, Thomas
pregger, carsten Hoyer-Klick, Global Potential Of Concentrating
Solar Power, SolarPaces Conference, Berlin, September 2009.
Pawel Szczygiellski & Leonard Wagner, Research Report
CSP:Concentrated Solar Power Large Scale Alternatives to
Traditional Solar PV, Mora Associates, Internal research, 2009.
Q. Liu, G. Yu, and J.J. Liu, Solar Radiation as Large-Scale Resource
for Energy,Short World Energy & Environment, 20(3): 319-329,
2009.
Volker Quaschning, Technical and Economical System Comparison
of Photovoltaic and Concentrating Solar thermal Power Systems
Depending on Annual Global irradiation, Solar Energy 77 (2004)
171-178.

Rosnani Affandi received her B.Eng in electrical

engineering and the M.Edu degree from the Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). She joined the
Polytechnic Department, Ministry of Education,
Malaysia as a lecturer in 1999. She is currently
pursuing her PhD at the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka,
Malaysia. Her current research interests include the
renewable energy and concentrating solar energy.

381

International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)

ISSN: 2249 8958, Volume-3, Issue-2, December 2013
Chin Kim Gan received his B.Eng and M.Sc
degrees both in electrical engineering from the
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and PhD
degree from the Imperial College London, UK. He
is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Universiti
Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM). His research
interests are distribution network design,
integration of renewable energy and smart grid.

Mohd Ruddin Ab. Ghani is a professor and the

Rector of the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka
(UTeM). Before coming to UTeM, he was professor
and the dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering
at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Prof.
Mohd. Ruddin Ab. Ghani obtained his Ph.D. in
Systems Engineering and Control from the
University of Manchester Institute of Science and
Technology in 1989. His current research interests include: dynamic
economic load dispatch, unit commitment, distribution automation,
optimization of large scale power systems, system identification, expert
system applications and advanced control techniques to power systems. He
has published over 90 papers and articles in the related fields. Besides
actively involved in research and publications, he is also a committee
member of various distinguished boards such as: committee member of
Malaysian
International
Electro-technical
Commission
(IEC),
Intensification of Research in Priority Areas (IRPA) and IEEE Malaysia
chapter. He is also member of Advisory Council Member of Malaysian
Armed Forces Academy, and a member of Energy Technology under
Economic planning unit.

Zanariah Jano is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for

Languages and Human Development, Universiti
Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM). She obtained a
BEd (TESL) (Hons.) from the University of Winnipeg,
Canada. She also obtained an MA (Communication
studies) specialising in information technology from
the University of Brighton, UK. Currently, she is
pursuing her PhD at Universiti Sains Malaysia in the
field of ICT in communication. Her research interests
relate to the area of ESP, EAP, ICT, gender studies, ICT in PBL, ICT in
Management and E-commerce. She has presented her research at several
international conferences, and has been involved in projects and teaching
programmes at the national level.

382